Targeted programming allows broadcasters to broadcast content to specific users. It can be used for a variety of purposes including conditioning access to certain channels, targeted advertising, and providing enhanced and interactive programming to users.
An example of a targeted programming system is a conditional access (CA) system. In a typical conditional access system, every user's set-top-box (STB) receives and conceivably views whatever is broadcast. Limitation of availability to select authorized individuals or groups is typically provided by CA mechanisms that restrict the availability of broadcast data to authorized users. An example of a CA mechanism is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,719 to Anthony Wasilewski, et al. However, CA systems generally require additional hardware and are not particularly well-suited for targeting a variety of different types of content to users. For instance, while CA systems can send conditional access to programming, they are generally unable to send applications or updates to individual users. Further, the programming is typically targeted to a single STB ID and there is usually no way for a group of STB to be programmed simultaneously.
Accordingly, a need exists for a more flexible system that can send a variety of targeted content. A need also exists for a system with that can send targeted content groups of individual users simultaneously.